Dana White claims post-fight UFC Seattle scrap with Paige VanZant's husband Austin Vanderford 'was nothing'

02/23/2025 01:50 AM

Dana White has insisted that he won’t be handing out any further punishments after a post-fight scrap at UFC Seattle.

The UFC boss was cageside as Austin Vanderford marked his long-awaited UFC debut with a TKO win over Nikolay Veretennikov. His wife Paige VanZant was in the corner as he dominated over two rounds before eventually finishing the fight on the ground.

However, the real excitement came after the fight as the Ukrainian bolted across the octagon to push his rival following the final bell. It led to a brief scene which could have turned ugly if not for UFC security breaking the pair up.

• Who is Dana White? All you need to know about the CEO and President of the UFC

Austin Vanderford vs Nikolay Verentennikov overshadowed by post-fight scrap

On the prelim card for UFC Seattle, Austin Vanderford finally made his debut under the UFC banner. After the undercard had been decimated by cancellations, reschedulings and even the retirement of legendary bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, he was called upon on just four days’ notice.

He imposed his will with the wrestling early after moving down to 175lb, a catchweight he claims was requested by his rival. He fought for middleweight gold in Bellator, but was always small at the weight and his now plotting a run for the welterweight title in the UFC.

He almost had a submission with two different arm triangle efforts in round one, but was forced into the second. It ended up being much of the same, and as he trapped his rival’s arm he rained down shots until the fight was stopped.

Dana White insists UFC Seattle post-fight scrap ‘was nothing’

After the incident, it was compared to the issue that caused Paul Daley to be banned after UFC 113 when he punched Josh Koshcheck after their fight. He never returned to the octagon, but it appears that White doesn’t see the incidents as comparable.

“Paul Daley punched Koshcheck in the face,” White replied when quizzed on the similarities between the incidents. “Listen, ueah, it’s never good when you go over and I don’t know why he went after him, I understand he was upset with the referee.

“If you watch that fight, when you look, I get why he was upset. He was blocking a lot of the shots, he was trying to get out of there. Then as soon as the fight was over, listen, if a guy is taking a number of unanswered shots and laying there on the ground [then I understand].

“He was defending and moving around, so I understand why he was upset. But you know how we are here, he went over and pushed the guy, what should we do? What Paul Daley did was completely different; you just had three five minute rounds to punch this guy in the face and you couldn’t.”

“So you’re going to go punch this guy in the face after the fight when he doesn’t expect it? That’s why that was done. He went over and pushed him, we aren’t those guys… You should see what goes on [backstage] here after the fights.

“You guys would be f***ing crying forever if you knew what went on. You’d be writing f***ing all kinds of stories and ‘what are you going to do to them?’ Believe me, that was nothing.”